On Things Nobody Talks About

There are things that nobody really talks about (I am using the colloquial sense of “nobody really” here). I don’t particularly mean the most demonstrably abnormal things you did as a child; I’m interested in the seemingly innocuous things-nobody-talks-about. With that, I’m going to leave the reader with some time to figure out what I’m talking about. I’m not being flamboyantly condescending to leave you with time, because I’m not talking about anything in particular – there are many many examples, and it could take a moment.

Now that you have that list of things, I’m going to talk about them. Your list should not include things like the little sneaky corner-cutting you do all the time; I’m talking about the largely unconscious background social-historical mindset of our culture and any culture. There are things that were never ever mentioned, things that didn’t dawn on you until your mid-life crisis and you can’t believe nobody told you. You never even overheard someone discussing these things to your memory. The ones I’m thinking about in particular are the things that seem to be culturally forgotten or euphemized.

I don’t claim to know what to even say about these things-nobody-talks-about. I could mention them, but I don’t know what to say about them. They are generally unsettling, so even mentioning them is rare. Mentioning them is especially rare because most people in history have never had the time and freedom to think much about them. (By the previous sentence, I am not claiming wisdom (critical thinking check).)